Friday, December 28, 2012

2012 in review

To end a great year, here's a summary of the noteworthy and the memorable in brand design during 2012.

Technology

Easily the most high-profile corporate rebrand of the year, both in terms of public impact and monetary value, was that of Microsoft. The roll-out of a new design program was already progressing when a new Windows logo, designed by Paula Scher at Pentagram, surfaced in February. It continued throughout the year with new logos for many programmes and services, including Microsoft Office, and culminated in the reveal of a new corporate Microsoft logo on August 23.

Telecom

The launch of EE to replace both T-Mobile and Orange on the British market was probably the most talked about telecom rebrand this year. This year also saw new looks for other mobile telcos like M-Tel in Bulgaria and Au in Japan.

Airlines

Many of the major airlines are still fighting for survival, and 2012 wasn't a big year for airline rebrands. Malaysia Airlines appears to have been the only flag carrier from a large country to introduce a new corporate identity this year. Still, there were several medium-sized airlines who introduced interesting new looks during 2012.

Automotive

Energy

Two major American electricity utilities introduced new corporate identities this year. They may be humdrum businesses that with identities that are a bit conservative, but they are also ranked quite high on the Fortune list.

Internet

Easily the biggest source of traffic for the blog this year has been the post about the redesigned Twitter bird. Twitter recognised the equity built into its bird icon and allowed a refreshed version of it replace its wordmark. Ebay is a somewhat older and more profitable Internet company that went in a similar direction.

TV

This year saw new logos from several leading private TV networks, including ITV in the UK and Univision in the US. There were also new corporate identities launched by the public broadcasters in several European countries, includingbthe Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland.

Food

The division of Kraft Foods into two companies brought one ridiculous name and two decent logo designs. This also seemed to be the year when just about every American maker of breakfast cereal introduced refreshed visual identities.

Conventional universities tend to have more traditional visual identities.The new monogram for the University of California stood out not because of its design, but because of the ridiculous response it got from the school's alumni, who rejected it and ultimately forced it to be withdrawn.

4 comments:

I really like your website. I come here for inspiration and also to see how and in what direction logo design and branding is trending without a bias and impartial reporting. I also LOVE not having to read comments from design students and critics who do not have a portfolio of themselves to back up their design values and understanding.Keep up the great work and looking forward to the upcoming year.Is there a donate button?